CIGARETTE-SMOKING AND PROSTATE-CANCER - NO RELATION WITH 6 MEASURES OF LIFETIME SMOKING-HABITS IN A LARGE CASE-CONTROL STUDY AMONG US WHITES

BACKGROUND. The study was undertaken to describe the association betwe en lifetime cigarette smoking habits and prostate cancer. Whereas most case-control and cohort studies report no association, the positive f indings from some large cohort studies are difficult to ignore. The av ailable information on lifetime smoking habits from most studies is li mited however. METHODS. In a study of 1,097 prostate cancer cases and 3,250 matched controls, admitted between 1969 and 1991 to U.S. hospita ls, several ordinal measures of lifetime smoking were compared to look for dose-response or threshold associations. RESULTS. No association was seen between prostate cancer and former or current smoking, age st arted smoking, number of years smoked, cigarettes per day smoked, the number of years since quitting, and lifetime tar exposure. CONCLUSIONS . Our data provide the most complete dose-response smoking information to date, and support the findings from the majority of studies that p rostate cancer is not associated with cigarette smoking. (C) 1997 Wile y-Liss, Inc.